Science

Every day and night, hundreds of thousands of intense, brief flashes of radiation suddenly flicker on and then off all across the sky. These “fast radio bursts” are invisible to the naked eye, but to a radio telescope many almost outshine everything else in the sky for a few thousandths of a second.

Since the first such burst was spotted in 2006, we have found that nearly all of them come from distant galaxies. Most bursts pass unnoticed, occurring outside the field of view of radio telescopes, and never occur again.

They're one of the most endangered mammals in the world, and a species you may never have even heard of: North Atlantic right whales.

American conservationists are hoping a proposed federal rule change to expand speed restrictions for vessels along the US East Coast will save the marine giants, which number fewer than 350, from extinction.

The lead author of a new analysis of flame retardant pollution said she was "blown away" by the amount of chemicals that have seeped into the environment, contaminating more than 100 wildlife species across every continent on Earth—even as other studies have found that ubiquitous anti-flame products have been found to be ineffective in most applications.

"Flame retardants don't actually make TV enclosures and car interiors more fire-safe, but they can harm people and animals," said Lydia Jahl, a scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute (GSPI), which published the study on Thursday. "Though these product flammability standards may seem protective at first glance, many cause widespread and lasting harm for no real benefit."

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

One way physicists seek clues to unravel the mysteries of the universe is by smashing matter together and inspecting the debris. But these types of destructive experiments, while incredibly informative, have limits.

We are two scientists who study nuclear and particle physics using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. Working with an international group of nuclear and particle physicists, our team realized that hidden in the data from previous studies was a remarkable and innovative experiment.

"My heart breaks," one biodiversity advocate said Monday as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 21 species would be removed from the endangered species list due to their extinction.

The agency said it had conducted "rigorous reviews of the best available science" and determined that the animal species are no longer in existence, having been protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) starting in the 1970s and '80s, when they were already in very low numbers—or potentially already extinct in some cases.

With his theory of General Relativity in 1915, Albert Einstein revolutionized how we think about our universe. Rather than the cosmos simply providing the room for the planets and stars to orbit each other, space and time themselves were now dynamical entities in one ever-evolving play with matter and light.

Einstein’s equations described how stars, galaxies and all other matter curve or warp space and time. The galaxies and the light rays then travel in this distorted space-time according to the equation provided by the 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler.

When sea ice melts, polar bears must move onto land for several months without access to food. This fasting period is challenging for all bears, but particularly for polar bear mothers who are nursing cubs.

Our research, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, found that polar bear lactation is negatively affected by increased time spent on land when sea ice melts.

After spending more than a year in space, Frank Rubio now has to get used to that pesky thing Earthlings call gravity.

"Walking hurts a little bit the first few days, the soles of your feet and lower back," he said at a news conference Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.